Tupelo extends deal with Waste Management

TUPELO – Residents won’t see a rate increase for trash or recycling pickup until at least July 2013.
The City Council this week renewed its current contract with Waste Management, which was set to expire this summer after an initial four-year term.
The council approved a two-year extension at the same rate. After that, the city will have to solicit bids for a new deal.
Waste Management has sole authority to collect household trash and household recyclables in Tupelo. Its current contract sets the monthly fees at $11.11 per residence for twice-weekly trash pickup and $1.35 per residence for twice-monthly curbside recycling.
WM doesn’t collect recycling from apartments.
Those rates likely would have increased had the city let its current contract expire to shop for a better deal, Buford Clark of Waste Management told council members earlier this year.
Gas prices have increased since the contract first took effect, as have equipment and employee costs, he said.
Tupleoans also pay a $3.51 monthly fee imposed by the city for brush and yard pickup. That rate isn’t contingent on the WM deal and could slide up or down at any time with council approval.
As part of its contract extension, WM will donate 500 rolling recycling carts to the city. The carts will be made available to residents, but it’s unclear who can request them or how they’ll be distributed. Those details will be worked out later, said council President Fred Pitts.
All households had received one 18-gallon recycling bin when WM launched Tupelo’s curbside recycling program nearly four years ago. WM has made extra bins available at no charge, but none with wheels – as had been requested particularly by elderly residents.
“I think it’s exciting they offered that,” Pitts told the Daily Journal on Wednesday. “Some of the elderly people would recycle if they had a rolling container.”
Contact Emily Le Coz at (662) 678-1588 or emily.lecoz@journalinc.com.